The school has grown from 490 students five years ago to 707, said Principal Stuart Payne. Instead of handing out pink slips, the school has been hiring talented teachers to meet the needs of its growing Irvine community.

Indeed, the school placed No.10 this year in the Orange County Register's rankings of county elementary schools.

During the day, teachers tailor lessons to each child's reading and math level so that every student is challenged. They use various methods to target multiple learning channels so students retain information regardless of how they learn best.

And the teachers focus on the basics, helping to ensure that the students understand reading, writing and arithmetic. Throughout the year, teachers analyze student scores and assess student abilities to make sure the children are being challenged and receiving help when they need it.

The reliance on assessments is "like going to the doctor for a physical rather than an autopsy," Payne said.

The system is working. Payne said that, in recent years, fewer children have had to repeat grades.

Many teachers also give extra instruction before and after school to help students who may be falling behind.

The school is busy after class ends, too, with homework help and a plethora of clubs for students to join. There's a chess club, a Lego club, Jedi engineering in which students build Star Wars-related items, a culinary class, a video-game design club, academic origami and cartooning, to name a few of the opportunities.

"As parents, we all want the best for our children, and when we send our kids to school we hope they're receiving the best care, so that's what we do," Payne said.

***

Editor's note: What follows is the Register's original profile on Northwood Elementary School, crafted as part of our 2010 school rankings.

***

By SCOTT MARTINDALEï¿½ / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

IRVINE – Top-performing schools can afford to stick with what works, taking only cautious, incremental steps toward change. Not so for Northwood Elementary School.

The highly-regarded Irvine campus has turned that philosophy on its head, choosing "momentum over stability" and continually questioning even the most steadfast of traditions, said Principal Stuart Payne.

Take the school's 45-minute lunch period. Up until this January, kids were required to finish eating before being set loose on the playground. They would scarf down whatever they could in 15 minutes or less and then hit the pavement, maximizing their play time, Payne said.

"We flipped it around – the kids go out and play now (for 25 minutes), and then we eat," Payne said of the policy change that was made just a month ago. "The lunch tables are calmer now, the kids eat more, and for the first time, we ran out of vegetables. And it's an easier transition because they are sitting at tables eating before they go back to the classroom."

Or take the case of the mysterious school buzzer. When Payne arrived at Northwood Elementary three years ago, he was jarred on the first day of classes by a loud buzzer that wasn't the passing bell. He ran to the front office to inquire, and was told that whenever the front office staff needed the campus custodian, they paged him by ringing the buzzer.

"The flow of learning for 530 kids just came to a screeching halt because we needed Tom to move some boxes in the office," Payne said. "That day, we bought walkie talkies."

The shake-ups extend to the school's instructional programs as well. Northwood has always boasted a stellar writing program – and test scores to match, Payne said. Teachers have honed their craft, working in grade-level teams to ensure kids get the best possible outcome each year. But what happens after the kids move to the next grade?

"We were scattered in our approach – every grade level did its own writing and there was no transition system in place," Payne said. "So what we did was vertically align our K-6 writing program."

The results were noticeable. In 2007, 1 percent of fourth-graders received a perfect score on the writing section of state standardized tests. By 2009, that figure jumped to 22 percent.

These and other academic triumphs have propelled Northwood into the upper echelons of Orange County's best elementary schools, earning the campus a No. 6 ranking in the Register's 2010 survey of Orange County public school quality.ï¿½

"I volunteer so much time here because I'm getting a private school education for a public school price," said Northwood PTA President Kristin Batoy of Irvine, who has two kids at the school. "There seems to be animosity at some schools – parents vs. the school – where their goals don't match, but everyone here is focused on the kids. The students are getting better, the expectations are getting better, and I just feel like everyone cares."

Anchored at the southern end of Irvine's Northwood community just a few blocks from the I-5, Northwood Elementary opened its doors in 1980. The campus was named a California Distinguished School in 2002 and earned a federal Blue Ribbon award in 2008.

After Northwood, kids attend Irvine's Sierra Vista Middle School, followed by Irvine's Northwood High School. Sierra Vista was ranked the No. 8 public middle school in 2009 by the Register; Northwood High was ranked the No. 3 public high school.

Northwood Elementary is continually looking at ways to drive achievement and foster a sense of community; sometimes it accomplishes both at the same time.

When the school started a competitive program last year called Reading Olympics that logs the number of minutes kids spend reading outside of class, the program was so successful that Northwood's small library couldn't keep up with kids' demands for books.

The PTA stepped in and created aï¿½ tri-annual event called the Book Swap. Through the program, kids are encouraged to donate books from their personal collection to the school and then, during Book Swap, all of the books are put up for "sale" and the kids "buy back" an equal number of new titles.

"They line up a half hour before we open because they want to get the best books," Batoy said. "We have 200 kids participating each time, and it's family time, too, because it's in the evening. The kids feel like they're shopping; it costs the parents nothing."

To motivate kids to turn in all homework assignments, Northwood started an incentive program called Friday Frolic. Kids who turn in all assignments for the week are rewarded with 45 minutes of playtime on Friday afternoons; city staff members from nearby Heritage Park come to the campus armed with balls, hoops, even parachutes.

Although nestled in a middle-class neighborhood, Northwood has a Title I federal poverty designation, and about 11 percent to 13 percent of kids annually qualify for free- or reduced-price lunches, Payne said. Kids at Northwood speak 19 different languages, with many coming to the school speaking limited or no English.

"The teachers are very dedicated to making the kids better than they think they are," said second-grade teacher Connie Fritsch, who has been at the school since its founding 30 years ago. "There's quite a sense of community and ownership and pride here."

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.